Build Title: The Krogan Blitz

Class: Krogan Warlord Sentinel

Map Difficulty Rating: This build has the potential for Gold gameplay

Power Evolutions:

Tech Armor: (4) Durability, (5) Melee Damage, (6) Durability

Biotic Hammer: (4) Damage & Force, (5) Armor Damage, (6) Number of Charges

Electrical Hammer: (4) Shields & Barriers, (5) Chill, (6) Number of Charges*

Krogan Warlord: N/A

Warlord Rage: Durability** (4), Martial Artist (5), Fitness Expert** (6)

*Depending on your style you could switch this for the Radius and combo evolution.  However, I prefer having the 4 charges this evolution provides so I can go to town on shielded enemies as needed.

**I prefer turning the warlord into a damage sponge.  However, either the Durability or Fitness Expert can be exchanged for their alternate melee damage evolution, but not both.  Remember, the Krogan Warlord can’t take cover or dodge, and he moves slowly if not sprinting.

Weapons:

The important thing here is to keep your cooldown bonus above 90% and chose the weapon class with your highest melee bonus mod. For Shotguns, I recommend the Geth Plasma Shotgun, Graal Spike Thrower or the N7 Crusader in that order. All of the Krogan Warlord’s abilities are based within melee range so it is a good idea to cover your bases and carry something for the medium to long range. If your Assault Rifle Omni-blade is higher than your shotgun blade attachment, the only ones that are too heavy are the Geth Spitfire and the N7 Typhoon, so choose your favorite.

Gear:

The Juggernaut Shield is my personal favorite. Since this is a melee build Hydraulic Joints would work well too, but I like the slight addition to durability from Juggernaut Shields. You really don’t need much else, but the Strength Enhancer weapon equipment and disruptor or phasic rounds would work well.

Strategy:

Say hello to the Krogan Warlord. He is big, loud and the giant ball of destruction every Krogan should be. As previously stated, he is a damage sponge. With no gear his health and shields are at 1700 and 2125, second only to the Geth Juggernaut.  However, with both Tech armor and Rage mode active, he gains an 80% damage reduction with a 200 health regeneration bonus. Built to take a beating and dish it out, the electrical hammer and biotic hammer abilities augment the Krogan’s melee capabilities and aren’t instant activation. The charges generated by these abilities are only used up when you execute a heavy melee or finish a three-hit melee combo. I prefer to have the Electrical Hammer charges active at most times since the heavy melee has more of an AoE than biotic hammer, it chills target that aren’t killed by the damage, and it has more charges than Biotic Hammer. However, Biotic Hammer is your power house move. The damage it deals is massive and shreds through armor with ease with this build. I can one-shot a phantom that has full health and barriers with a Heavy Melee. Rage mode activates fairly easily for the Krogan Warlord already, which is why I skipped the Pure Rage evolution of Warlord Rage for Fitness Expert.

Now that you know some of the positive attributes, let’s cover the weaknesses. The Krogan Warlord is even less maneuverable than other Krogan. He cannot use low cover, either as protection or vaulting it when it gets in his way. He has limited use of high cover. You cannot put your back to a corner and fire at enemies while having most of your body protected. You can still use high cover, but you need to position yourself manually. His walking speed is very slow, but he can still sprint, which is pretty much how you should move across the map at all times. Tech armor and rage may provide a massive damage resistance along with health regeneration to bolster his already high durability, but enemies with high DPS like Cerberus turrets and Geth Pyros can overcome this, especially if you have to deal with more than one.  Finally, the biggest danger with this build is the fact that you should be spending most of your time in melee range. This is not a bad thing until you have to face the sync-killers (Brute, Banshee, Atlas, Phantom, Praetorian, and Scion). I didn’t even realize a Brute could sync-kill you until I played the Krogan Warlord. You only need to really worry about Phantoms if they sneak up on you or attack in packs since one Biotic Hammer Heavy melee can take them out with ease. The standard tactic I take is to flank a sync-kill enemy while they are preoccupied with another teammate (preferably a Geth Juggernaut) and just start using heavy melees. If the sync-killer agro’s you, start back pedaling and unloading your weapon of choice until their health is low enough and you can take them out in one heavy melee.

One of the first things you should do in a wave if you aren’t already in Rage mode is to find a trooper level enemy and Heavy melee it to death to get the martial artist boost to melee damage. Unless you want to waste a biotic hammer charge on this mook, your best bet is to weaken it with your gun first, then start in with a heavy melee when you are a couple of meters away. The Krogan Warlord’s heavy melee does have a limited lock-on feature that helps you close distance and make sure you hit the highlighted enemy, even if it moves. After smashing the first mook to death, find another one nearby to trigger Rage. From here on out, you should be able to kill most troopers with a single standard melee attack. Use Electrical Hammer charged heavy melees on shielded mooks to both keep your martial artist bonus going and chill the enemies in the surrounding area. Keeping Rage mode and the martial artist boost going should not be difficult once you get the ball rolling. Remember, only the third strike of a standard melee combo or a heavy melee will expend a charge. So, if you can, try to minimize the number of charges you use. You can cancel out of the charging animation into a heavy melee, but being caught in the middle of a group of enemies and suddenly having to recharge is annoying. You can use the blast from tech armor if you so choose, but your electrical hammer heavy melee attacks will do more damage over a wider radius without leaving you exposed.

N00b Rating:

2 – There are a few quirks of the Krogan Warlord build to get used to, and learning that sometimes it is better to back pedal and use your gun when facing sync-killers.  But overall this build is fairly simple.

Appearance:

Personally, I prefer the appearance he comes standard with. No specialized paint-jobs, just a big, red, angry Krogan running around crushing things. What could be cooler than that?